Post by Carter Shaw on Mar 20, 2022 12:51:41 GMT -5
There was a brief moment where all I heard were crickets. My mind’s projection onto the silence. The crowd had cooled down after Jill Park’s momentous victory in the Hell In A Cell, the confused hatred for both her and I settling down to post-show murmurs and footsteps. The cell had risen. Jill had retreated for medical attention with a side of popped champagne.
And there I was. In the middle of the ring. Alone. The crowd had turned its attention away, trying to remember where they parked their cars. Chris Avery and Billy relieved their ears of their headsets. And all I heard…were crickets.
Rubbing their ribbed wings together. Singing the song of summer. And for a moment, I reveled in the adulation. That was my standing ovation. The next thing I remember is waking up in a hospital bed and the chirps became beeps. A reminder that I still had a heart, atleast.
Those crickets ain’t goin’ nowhere, infact, Jacksonville is the perfect place for them to rise up in full force once again because Masuda Teijin is BACK, ladies and gentlemen, and the standing ovation of crickets awaits the bi-annual moment.
Teijin’s Return. Brought to you by Cricket Wireless.
It’s been a long time since the names Carter Shaw and Masuda Teijin both graced a Monday Night Clash card. Welcome back to a locker room and an arena where at no point are you more than 6 steps away from someone I have beaten.
Call it the Six Degrees Of Carter Shaw.
And things have been on a bit of a downward spiral for me, Teijin, I’m gonna be honest with you. I’ve lost that AW World Championship. Phili-...We don’t need to talk about that. And since then, my spot here in AW feels a bit like a broken snowboard and I’m struggling to regain my footing. 2 parts Bullshit, 1 part Stacked Odds, and a half-ounce of distraction. How to make the Shawlotov Cocktail.
And this all has happened while you’ve been at home, rehabbing your knee injury, playing as Carter Shaw on AW 2k22, trying to virtually understand why you can’t quite hit a brainbuster like I can. Alot has changed over your time of trials and tribulations. Before your injury struggles and CruiserClash run, Carter Shaw Vs Masuda Teijin to open the show would have been a showcase of the Action Wrestling up and comers, spawning excitement and intrigue. Now? It’s telling of both your ambitious return to the big leagues and my fall from grace.
Is it really a fall though?
Jill Park can brush off her victory as another “I don’t care” moment in her blur of a semi-meaningful existence but what willed her past me was the fact that she certainly gave a shit. She gave a whole lot of shit. And she’s now going to head towards Havoc as a talking point. I can hear the NBA Jam voice now, “She’s on fire!”
Because of one win.
Over Carter Shaw.
That’s fuckin’ power, nobody gets to treat me like some immediate insignificance when a victory over me is the ultimate springboard from doubted to touted.
Teijin, I’m gonna smoke you like a Paul Mall, and the beauty of it is? Nothing will change for either of us. You? You lose and resume the status quo of flat returns and flatlined plans. Me? This ain’t 2020, you ain’t springboardin’ me nowhere.
I’m still one of the best this company has to fuckin’ offer, I’ve honed my skills over those two years that Masuda has rusted his. I’ve gone from knuckle-throwing angsty youth to polished fighter… to AW upstart to an elite professional wrestler. I will keep getting better every fucking day.
We’re surrounded by a lot of prisoners of the moment. The amount of hate that comes with recency bias is sickening but alas, it’s the world we live in. Action Wrestling has so much talent housed under one roof, that it becomes a perpetual shouting match of you’ve lost it because you lost your last match. That’s not how it fucking works, if it did, we’d all appropriately see through the smokescreen that is our four-time World Champion. 4 Times? Come on now, you hang your hat on that accolade and you’ll wonder why you keep finding your hat on the floor.
Simply put? Shaw Is For Real. The words have been true since day 1 and have been proven right a hell of a lot more times than it’s been proven wrong. When I spoil your return, Teijin, it can still be a stepping stone if you move your legs in the right direction. Use it.
Use it like Jill Park will use hers for the next year and half of bragging right. Use it like Dandy will use his to build an entire family empire off of. Use it like Johnny Bacchus, but try not to let all the steam out with another injury like he did.
Fucking
Use
It.
Because when I win the Havoc Rumble and main event Evolution for the 2nd year in a row, everyone can point their finger towards me and mutter the words ‘but, but…’. This will naturally be followed by choking on your own words as somehow, someway, white bread did it again. Somehow, someway, recency bias has once again turned into a string of undeniable historical moments with my name plastered all over them.
Sure. Picture a bruised kid on the playground yelling out “I’ll do it, you’ll see”...but in the end we’ll be met with the now-familiar image of Carter Shaw standing tall while the rest of the crowd, reaching and clawing for that AW throne…
Ain’t nothin’ but noise.
Chirping.
Masuda Teijin, jerk the curtain with me. Let’s fuckin’ dance and for as long as a tango may last, I’ll happily start Clash by ending our match…
dancing on the grave of your chances.